Microsoft and Novell: The Battle of the Suits

For many computer companies, the challenge is not producing better products or developing a good marketing strategy. The challenge is to find executives (or "suits") who understand the business.

In 1984, Apple CEO John Sculley (Wikipedia) announced the company's motto of "Apple II Forever" (Apple2History). At the time, many schools had invested in the Apple II as an economical way of teaching computers to students. Apple was updating the Apple II computer and had long-term plans to support it alongside of the Macintosh line. Shortly after that Sculley announced that he was just kidding, the plans were canceled and the Apple II series was over. Apple expected that schools would migrate to the superior technology of the Macintosh. They were wrong. Unable to trust Apple at their word, schools flocked to Intel-based computers running Microsoft Windows. Like many Apple enthusiasts, I, too, swore I would never buy an Apple computer again. And I haven't.

A few years ago I decided to focus on Red Hat Linux and make it my Linux desktop. After Red Hat 9, the company discontinued the free version of their packaged Linux in favour of the unstable "Fedora" series. As I wrote about in a previous column (Lone Coder), this was a major disaster for Red Hat: many of the people using the free Red Hat 9 were not early adopters but the developers who made Red Hat's product possible. Red Hat's marketshare plummeted dramatically since Fedora's release.

So this year I moved my desktop over to Novell's SuSE Linux. Then in November, SuSE announced a deal with Microsoft. Does this mean that I've been "Apple II"ed by the suits once again?

Novell has kind of been the Corel of the U. S. It has been known for its failure to understand its own technology, most stunningly over its sale of WordPerfect to Corel for a fraction of its actual price. In 2003, Novell purchased SuSE Linux, a German distribution which, at the time, was the number two version of Linux, leaving the SuSE developers to work with minimal interference from the corporate brass (Wikipedia).

Novell had been struggling through 2006 with frequent turnaround of the suits who had been unable to cash in on SuSE Linux as they had planned. In November, Novell announced a new multi-point deal with their old nemesis, Microsoft. Microsoft provided cash and assurances that Novell would be protected from lawsuits. Novell would improve the compatibility of their software with Microsoft products.

Patent laws are much more loose in the U. S. than in Canada. The recent case against RIM caused some to question whether the case was legitimate or not (Globe and Mail). Or more recently, Blackboard's attempt to patent user login access rights for their school software (ZDNet UK), techniques that have been used for decades (according to open source advocate Software Freedom Law Center). Perhaps Novell had something to worry about.

Immediately after the Novell deal, there was a falling out. Novell denied any patent infringements by Linux (eWeek) while Microsoft said the deal was a smokin' gun.

Pundits have been all over this, trying to decide if Linux had been benefited by the deal. Even IBM people weighed in, claiming better Windows support was good for Linux (Linux Watch).

The thing that everyone is forgetting, however, is who made the deal. It was the suits. And suits don't understand technology. During a public IRC chat, key people from Novell's open source division tried to answer the questions on people's minds (Linux.com). The important thing they said was that many of the key SuSE people were completely unaware of the deal. The Novell administration didn't consult them on the impact on their software before hand. If there was any benefits for Linux, it is accidental and not by design.

Back up 9 years. In 1997, Apple Computer was in financial trouble. After a series of failed leaders, the company hired Steve Jobs, one of the company's founders, as interim CEO. Jobs had a reputation of not believing in the impossible, making him able to achieve the impossible while, at the same time, making him impossible to work with. Nobody thought Jobs would be around for long.

Nearly 10 years later, and Jobs is still CEO at Apple. What happened?

Jobs made a deal with Bill Gates (CNet). Microsoft would port Internet Explorer and Office to the Mac. Some Apple insiders were furious: Microsoft was the enemy. But, as Howie Mandel might say, "Jobs make a great deal". Without paying off its debts and getting better software, Apple was finished. The Microsoft deal made it possible for Apple to get back into the market and develop a completely new technology, the iPod and iTunes, while music companies were still fighting with each other. Jobs, once again, achieved the impossible. Those who work with him may want to smack him in the side of the head, but Apple was saved.

The Novell executives made a grab for cash from Microsoft while having a history of not being able to turn this kind of thing into an advantage. Perhaps Novell is smarter than it looks. Only time will tell. But the pundits arguing over the results of the deal are wasting their time. The only thing for sure is that the Novell suits are not Steve Jobs and Microsoft compatibility doesn't mean that we'll see Internet Explorer or Office on Linux any time soon. This is definitely not looking like "a great deal".

December 15, 2006